Rapinnin Is What's Happening: ODB, Suge Knight, & A Dipset Christmas

There’s so much wild shit going in Hip-Hop, sometimes it hard to keep track of all the squabbling and thuggery. That’s why we here at YW are dedicated to helping you sort out the significant from the trivial, the hilarious from the frivolous, and most of all, the wild from the idle. With that in mind, we present the first post in a weekly series titled, “Rappinin Is What’s Happening.”

1.Ol’ Dirty Bastard Biography: It seems fitting to start our post with news about the man whose lyrics spawned the title of this series. In case you haven’t heard, an ODB biography is set to hit bookshelves on November 25. Written by freelancer Jaime Lowe, whose work has appeared in The Village Voice, Radar, Interview, and Sports Illustrated, Digging For Dirt: The Life and Death of ODB charts the wilding pioneer’s rise to fame and fall from grace through a kaleidoscope of narrative techniques – part personal narrative, part biography, part social criticism. In a snippet released to the media, Ason’s former lawyer Robert Shapiro -- who also helped O.J. Simpson beat his double-murder rap – tells Lowe that he believes the rapper may have had a “mental illness.” The lawyer cites courtroom shenanigans as examples saying, “[He would] talk in jive talk… come into court with two different shoes, labels with price tags attached. One time he had his hat on backward, had on two different shoes, and he stood with his back to the judge with his hat facing the judge as if he was looking at [him].” I’ll definitely be grabbing this when it comes out, so expect a book review from yours truly.

2.Suge Knight Sues Kayne: Remember when Suge Knight was the boss of bosses. When he used to hang dudes off balconies – Vanilla Ice – for fucking with his money. Oh, how times have changed. The former football player and Blood is suing Kanye West for the loss of a beloved 15-carat diamond stud earring that was stolen from him three years ago. According to a lawsuit filed by Knight against West and some of his partners on September 12, the label boss blames 'Ye for allowing someone to smuggle a gun past security at the rapper's 2005 pre-VMA party in Miami, the same party where some unknown person shot Suge in the leg. Suing someone because you got shot by an unrelated party is not gangster, in fact, it’s pussy. Now, I not a huge fan of Kanye, but it’s not his fault Suge managed to make so many enemies when he was balling out of control. This looks like a last-ditch effort by Suge to recoup some of his assets. It’s been a bad year for the once high-flying rap impresario who was knocked out by some random dude and recently filed for bankruptcy, and this summer, he had to sit idly by while his company's assets were sold at auction. What’s most shocking to me about this is that Kanye actually invited him to a party -- that was dumb move.

3.Comedian Mike Epps Joins Forces With Dipset For Christmas Album: Jim Jones and Juelz Santana's Skull Gang, alongside Dipset's Freekey Zeekey, have announced plans to team up with comedian Mike Epps (aka pimpin’ since been pimpin’, since been pimpin’) for a Christmas project right before the beginning of the holiday season. The upcoming album, titled A Tribute To Bad Santa, will feature 15 new Christmas tracks and hilarious skits from Epps. Four of the album's tracks -- "Christmas Eve," "Baby Keep It Here," "Christmas Song," and "Jingle Bellz" -- as well as some of the hilarious antics in the recording sessions can be previewed at Eppisodes.com. In addition to the Xmas project, Jim Jones has been working non-stop over the past few months on a series of ridiculous new projects including a new studio album (Pray IV Reign), a new feature film life-spanning documentary, a coffee table book (for real, that’s exactly what people want with their morning coffee), a new off-Broadway play (for real, for real), and more, which he plans to reveal soon. A Tribute To Bad Santa is slated for release November 25.